Charleston real estate market report, July 2008

August 31, 2008 | Leave a Comment

A recap of Charleston home prices by classification for the past 12 months compared to the previous 12 months continues to show surprising stability despite fewer sales than in prior years.

The chart shows home sales for single family homes under $600k (which represents the biggest share of the Charleston housing market at 70+%) over the past 3 years; the blue line represents 2006, the red line 2007 and the green line 2008.

Statistics compiled by Howard Arnoff using the Charleston MLS as the source of data, informtion deemed reliable but not guaranteed.

Charleston South Carolina real estate home prices

Charleston home sales

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Posted by Howard | Filed Under Blog, Charleston Market Trends, Charleston real estate, Statistics

Charleston home prices

August 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Average and median sales prices in the Charleston real estate market for the past 24 months shows much more price stability than you might think considering very high inventory levels and declining unit sales on a year over year basis in Charleston.

The blue line represents the period from August 2006 – July 2007 and the red line represents the period from August 2007 – July 2008. The first chart is average sales price and the second chart is the median sales price.

Average sales price for Charleston homes by month

Median sales price for Charleston real estate by month

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Posted by Howard | Filed Under Blog, Charleston Market Trends, Charleston real estate, Statistics

Real estate is local

August 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment

… and real estate prices reflect that.

I wonder how the National housing price indexes would look if California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona were excluded. After all, the Charleston real estate market and Charleston real estate price have very little to do with Los Angeles or San Diego, Miami or Orlando.

home price index from Core Logic

Home price map from OFHEO

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Posted by Howard | Filed Under Blog, Charleston real estate

Motivated sellers

August 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment

“If your client is at all interested in this home, the sellers are very motivated!”

If you are selling your home in today’s Charleston real estate market, you had better be a motivated seller.

Or you shouldn’t be selling.

There are a whopping 464 active listings within a $50,000 price range that your home is competing with in just Summerville. If you aren’t motivated, another seller most likely is.

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Posted by Howard | Filed Under Blog, Buyer Tips, Charleston real estate, Seller Tips

Whatever happened to

August 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment

… this potential client.

From my email:

Dear Howard Arnoff:

Today, your prospect, ZZZZZ, was automatically expired by LIST-IT. He or she was inactive for at least 1 month.

A couple of quick points. LIST-IT is the name that Solid Earth, the Charleston MLS provider uses to send emails. This potential client had signed up for listing alerts and looked at them for a while. Then they stopped.

So whatever happened to ZZZZZ?

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Posted by Howard | Filed Under Blog, Charleston real estate

Sitting on the fence

August 21, 2008 | Leave a Comment

White picket fence It seems to me that a lot of people are sitting on the fence these days not quite knowing what to do about buying or selling in the Charleston real estate market.

Turn on the television, read the newspaper (does anyone still do that) or read the news online and news about the problems in housing and financial institutions has to make you take pause.

And yet, while no one wants to make a bad investment, your house is more than just a financial investment, it is also your home, where you live, raise your family, entertain friends and family, create memories and much more.

Whether you realize it or not, even if you are renting, you are making a mortgage payment; but it is your landlord’s mortgage payment, not yours.

Photo courtesy of Flickr by pbo31.

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Posted by Howard | Filed Under Blog, Buyer Tips, Charleston Market Trends, Charleston real estate

Back to school

August 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Back to school in the Charleston area This week, all the school districts in the Charleston area return to school and the cars and school buses will be on the roads once again. Drive safely and yes, a bit more congestion is to be expected as always.

Berkeley County kicked off the school year yesterday, Charleston County starts today and Dorchester County, District II begins on Thursday.

Links to school district websites:

Berkeley County

Charleston County

Dorchester County (District II)

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Posted by Howard | Filed Under Blog, Helpful hints

Loan modification

August 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment

… is a big buzzword today. The government has been wanting lenders to rework the loans of many troubled homeowners so as to avoid additional foreclosures. The problem is that thus far very few loans have actually been modified.

So what gives. Let’s say you feel like the value of your home has declined somewhat and you’d like to modify your loan. Will the lender just happily lop tens of thousands of dollars from your balance and call it a day. Not really.

But if you are facing a hardship, that might be another story and loan modification could be a potential solution. If your interest rate increased because you took out an adjustable rate mortgage and “didn’t know” that an adjustable rate meant that your payment might increase over time, you can join the chorus of the many who seem to fall into that situation. Even if you did know how an adjustable rate mortgage worked, today’s lending problems work to your advantage because you can probably claim ignorance because you still face financial hardship.

If you or your wife got divorced, lost your job or had unexpected expenses from an illness, you most definitely are facing a financial hardship and should seek a loan modification program with your lender.

Some lenders are more open to the process than others and it might not be easy. Please take note, you’ll have to prove you are facing a financial hardship, not just feeling like you’d like to lower your interest rate or monthly payment.

It will be better than just waiting to be foreclosed but don’t wait until it’s too late.

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Posted by Howard | Filed Under Blog, Charleston real estate, Mortgage / Finance

The Boss comes to Charleston

August 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Bruce Springsteen will be in Charleston Saturday night playing to a sold out crowd at the North Charleston Coliseum. Tickets sold out in nanoseconds for what will likely be the concert of the year in Charleston.

I noticed some positives with ticket resales, additional proceeds being donated to charity. And some businesses are using the highly coveted tickets to thank their best clients.

It should be a great show.

Photo courtesy of flickr by Alex Hempton-Smith.

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Posted by Howard | Filed Under Blog, Charleston, Just for fun

Foreclosure news July 2008

August 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment

The latest foreclosure news is out and no significant changes are reported by RealtyTrac. A few more than last month, about double this month last year and South Carolina remains much better than the rest of the country ranking 34^th.

While the Charleston real estate market has some foreclosure activity, it is thankfully still few and far between compared to markets with most housing activity focused on foreclosures.

Foreclosure map July 08